Substack Is Private. Here’s How Investors Can Still Play It
No, Substack is not publicly traded. If you want exposure, your realistic options are waiting for an IPO, looking at comparable public names, or—if you’re accredited—checking private secondary markets.
Substack is having a real moment: it just raised $100 million at a reported $1.1 billion valuation, and its paid subscription base keeps scaling fast. That makes it a natural name for retail investors to ask about, especially as more writers, podcasters, and media brands build businesses on the platform.
The catch is simple: Substack is still private, so there’s no public ticker to buy today. Here’s what the company does, whether it’s publicly traded, what an IPO would require, and the closest ways investors can get exposure now.
What is Substack?
Substack is a subscription-first publishing platform for writers, creators, podcasters, and publishers. The model is straightforward: creators can publish for free, and if they charge readers, Substack takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, with Stripe processing fees on top. Substack says writers keep 90% of revenue, and the product now includes publishing tools, payments, analytics, recommendations, Notes, live video, subscriber chat, and enterprise offerings.
The company says it was founded in 2017 and joined Y Combinator’s winter 2018 batch. Its jobs page says the team is more than 100 people across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., and Substack says it has 5 million paid subscriptions and tens of millions of weekly readers. That makes it one of the most visible private companies in creator media and direct-to-reader publishing.
